The Lighthouse Keeper

Proverbs 3:1 My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments…

We are quick to forget that which only enters the mind. When I was in High School, I mastered the art of short-term memorization for quizzes and tests. I could cram for several hours and make good grades on the test in algebra, calculus  or English grammar. However, if I had taken those same tests a week later without cramming, I probably would not have done nearly so well. This lack of genuine learning showed itself recently when my teenage daughter was telling me about her algebra class – and I could not remember much of what she was telling me about! Hey, I’m a product of the public school system. Cut me some slack.

Scripture memorization is a very important practice for people of all ages, Continue reading →

John 15:1-2 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. (2) Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Above the sanctuary gate in Herod’s Temple hung a golden grapevine, made with gold leaves and grapes donated by the people of Israel. No doubt, this golden vine had been seen by the Lord Jesus and His disciples in their recent days within the Temple, and it is at least possible that this vine of gold may have served as an illustration for the Lord’s lesson on fruit-bearing in John 15. Certainly, many churches today are like that golden vine: bright, shiny, wealthy, impressive – yes, and as dead and fruitless as a golden grapevine.

Jesus Christ is “the true vine.” The vine provides sustenance, strength, and stability. The branches are the little offshoots of the vine that actually produce the grapes. Branches connected to the vine produce fruit; disconnected branches, those that do not abide in the vine, wither and are fruitless.

Joh 15:6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

If a Christian individually or a church corporately is not bearing fruit, we should stop and look for the cause. There are only four options: 1) There is something wrong with the vine. 2) The husbandman is Continue reading →

2Ti 3:10-11,14 But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, (11) Persecutions, afflictions… (14) But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;

Paul, the aged apostle in the last days of his life before martyrdom took him to glory, was giving wise advice to his son in the faith, Timothy. Yet it should be kept in mind that Timothy was no longer the young assistant who had left home to follow Paul on his missionary journeys. According to the dates in the Scofield reference Bible, Timothy had been in the ministry for about 15 years when he received the second Epistle from Paul. He would therefore have most likely have been in his mid-thirties. In those 15 years, Timothy had distinguished himself in service, causing Paul to praise him on several different occasions to several different churches.

Yet, Timothy is here reminded to “continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and been assured of.” These “things” included Paul’s “doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,” etc. Paul was leaving Timothy, but he was leaving behind a pattern for Timothy to follow in the decades to come. It was the end of Paul’s ministry, but Timothy was just in the middle of his own race. Would he be able to say with Paul, “I have finished my course, I have kept the faith?”

The “mid-life crisis” is a real problem. It affects men and women. To ignore this fact of life in these sin-cursed bodies is foolishness. What some people do in their forties and Continue reading →

Luke 14:21-23 So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. (22) And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. (23) And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

I love the bus ministry. I thank God for the bus ministry. When my wife was a teenager in a broken home, some bus workers invited her to church. Her parents would not have brought her to church. She could not drive herself at that time. Thank God, there was a Sunday School bus to take her. The bus driver’s family also picked her up for the evening services. Her soul was saved and OUR lives were changed, Continue reading →

Psalm 92:13 Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.

When I began pastoring over 12 years ago, I began to hear an expression that was unfamiliar to me at the time – but which has become all too familiar since. Folks would visit our church and say, “We are church shopping.” I have to admit that it struck me as funny. I would think (but not say), “What are you looking for? Discount tithes? Half off missions? First month free?” Without fail, these “church shoppers” would come to a service, look around critically, and often dismissively, refusing to be more than polite to anyone, and then leave. I have found that many of these “church shoppers” have been “shopping” around for years!

God saved me in a Baptist church as a teenager, and from that day to this I’ve never “church shopped.” The one time we moved, when I was not in full-time ministry, we knew where we were going and we joined the next Sunday. I would not have moved without knowing what church I would attend or at least without a short list of churches to visit – and one of which I would join, soon! Church is too important a part of my life. I cannot even imagine “church shopping” for a year!

I suppose this “church shopping” mindset has come about with the commercialization of churches. It is no secret that churches compete with each other for members instead of trying to reach the unsaved; it is also no secret that many churches pander to people in exactly the same way that businesses do to their customers. This has, Continue reading →